Put together a little automata this last week that has a big fish chasing a little fish around an oval with a plan to eating him for dinner. I sort of started with and idea and then designed on the run, building a little, designing more details in CAD and then building a bit more. Below is a photo of all the pieces except one I forgot to add to the pile. As you might expect building the chain was a bit finicky. Not so difficult but challenging for fat fingers like mine. The chain has a fair bit of play in it so building it first to get the right centre to centre distance for the wheel was necessary. The mechanism is shown below without the oval on the top in place. As I was building it I started to think of other chase scenarios that might work with this mechanism. I thought perhaps I should just have a collection of characters that could be easily swapped out to change with the seasons, or the whim of the owner. As a result I thought I should rename it "The Chase" and have a cache of changeable characters. Hmm, I'll have to consider that. In the meantime it's two fish. Here is one of the fish below. Finally here is a quick peek at the fish in motion.
5 Comments
Pj
11/24/2020 10:10:32 pm
Love it, can’t wait to see updates to the items in the chase.
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Michael
11/25/2020 05:06:54 pm
I love the use of a chain mechanism as a way to drive the circular motion. Nice job making the chain...that's a lot of work. Makes the engineer in me very happy. :-) I also noticed that you combined the ratchet gear with the first drive gear. Is the ratchet gravity catch/tab a new design? I don't remember seeing it before. I like it!
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Al Conquergood
11/25/2020 06:36:39 pm
Hey Michel, thanks for your note.
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Terry Nelson
3/2/2021 01:46:38 pm
I am not a engineer nor even very mechanically inclined. Love this site and the inspiration it gives. I am hoping I'll be able to try some builds of automata in the future
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Al Conquergood
3/2/2021 02:31:50 pm
Thanks for the visit. When you get to it there is a free simple plan in my learning centre for you to try!
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Why Automata?Automata is a creative blend of my life interests , engineering, art and woodworking. Archives
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